


Work/Text Recapitulation

by peoriapeoria



Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meta, aca-fan, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23395375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: Work/Text Investigating the Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a book that's academic and thus not held by many libraries and expensive. I was able to read it and composed some notes regarding that.
Kudos: 4
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge, Non-Fiction Works:The Meta





	Work/Text Recapitulation

So, tomorrow Work/Text Investigating the Man from U.N.C.L.E. goes back to the library so it can journey to its native shelf. By Cynthia W. Walker, this is a communications/media studies book. I have to admit, I did have to re-read parts at the start, since the theory just keeps coming and doesn't stop. Since many of you may not get a chance to read this one, I wanted to provide some overview/recap.

The first three chapters are "One Very Cool Show", "Toward a New Approach to Studying Media in a Convergence Culture", and "Work/Text: Applying a Dialogic Model". McLuhan is the main takeaway for the first chapter, and his main premise is that you can have media that requires audience participation, that is low-fi and requires interpretation because not all of the information is included or presented. The second chapter lays out some communication theory and posits that distinguishing between interpersonal and mediated isn't really useful, because even mass-media isn't solely uni-directional and media is pervasive in communication between between people separated by time, space or both. A letter, a phone, the internet--mediation. The last sets up that a writer makes a work (a show, a novel, a song) and the audience 'reads' the text. Thus a show for example is a work/text, and which aspect is most important depends on whose perspective you're coming at it with.

Chapter four is probably the one that is most directly in alignment with fandom as fandom. It contextualizes The Man from U.N.C.L.E. within 1960s television, within its genre, with unexpected antecedents and successor phenomena. It's with good reason that The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is considered as a potential ur-fandom among media fandoms. This book does not touch on Sherlock Holmes, which has some claims too, but the Canon works there are print and the wide ranging production outside of that wasn't constrained by modern intellectual property models. Man from U.N.C.L.E. had merchandizing, tie-in novels, board games, toys, even apparel. Actors made personal appearances in character, including on other programming. This chapter explores how a 'spy show' broke with some of those conventions (who can be a hero), picked up fans approaching it with science fiction fandom experience and shaped the trajectory of Star Trek. Thus "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as a Media Culture Site".

Chapters five through nine follow the trajectory of the show, from concept through the seasons to cancelation. It's very useful being concrete, using a show and its particulars to see where influences play on a writer making a work and how readers receive that text. Importantly, it points to how in television, while the producer is the main maker, it's an effort of many people that brings the work forth.

Chapter ten, "The Value of a Dialogic Model" points out how seeing a show as a work/text gives more complete ways of looking at the participants of this sort of communication. More tools, different questions, ways of seeing answers. The epilogue concludes with some of the attempts to create new works;note, this book was published in 2013 and thus predates the recent movie. (I've not yet seen the movie; I have read Batman '66 meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)


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